Delimitation Commission Order cannot be questioned in any court & hence DC has ‘extra’ responsibility
DAYA SAGAR
The task before the Delimitation Commission (DC) for UT of J&K for delimiting 90 Single Member Constituencies of 1st Legislative Assembly of UT is to be conducted in terms of Section -60 of The J&K Reorganisation act of 2019 ( Act no 34 of 2019). (1) First task for delimitation is to decide the number of territorial constituencies in which the UT is to be decided and that has already been decided Section-60 as 90. (2) Second task is to set basis for determining number of seats to be reserved and that has also been laid down in the Act 34 and the DC has to only calculate the number of such seats in proportion to population of SC/ST in 2011 census (3) 3rd task and the most intimate tasks is to decide and draw the extent of each of constituency and for that Section-60 (2) lays down guidelines saying that the Election Commission shall have regard to the provisions, namely:- (a) all the constituencies shall be single-member constituencies; (b) all constituencies shall, as far as practicable, be geographically compact areas, and in delimiting them, regard shall be had to physical features, existing boundaries of administrative units, facilities of communication and conveniences to the public;
The task before the DC is the one may be no any
commission has had before.No doubt delimitation has to be done in principle on UT basis but case of J&K is a typical case where DC will have to take a JK- UT-
specific approach like first drawing out a macro model on regional basis & then laying constituencies at micro level taking district as a unit since very intimate corrections are needed to undo the shadows of ‘irrational’ wrongs of earlier Delimitation order of 1995 which can surely disturb some people.But the challenge has to be taken and real truth placed before common masses one day.
(4) 4rth task is to mark the seats which shall be reserved for the SC/ST keeping in view the population of SC/ST in the carved out constituencies as per 2011 census and the (5) the fifth task is any needed adjustments in the boundaries and description of the extent of the parliamentary constituencies. Section-60 (2) the task (3 ) is the most important& most taxing part of assignment before the DC and that too ,more so, since it is for UT of J&K which has areas that were part of the ‘State of J&K’extending over 83 out of 87 MLA Constituencies of the LA of J&K State where right since 1951 deciding constituencies for the Constituent Assembly and Delimitations MLA segments of Legislative Assembly till 1995 had remained under valid question marks; and any observer may possibly get carried with illusions that may be created by immediately available historical information like in the Legislative Council of J&K State the areas in Kashmir Valley had constitutionally ( Section-50) only 12 elected MLCs and the areas outside Kashmir Valley ( now in UT) had 14 elected MLCs but strangely Delimitation Commission order of 1995 had so irrationally distributed 46 MLAs in Kashmir Valley as against only 37 MLAs over areas out side Kashmir Valley in total violation of even clear working parameters being there as per J&K RPAct 1957 { Section- 4, Sub Section -2-a (i) : Population(ii ) : Geographical Compactness :: Kashmir Valley 15948 sq km Jammu region sq26293 km ( iii) :Nature of Terrain (Jammu Region 60 to70 % difficult & bad, Kashmir Valley 25 to 30 % max bad ) iv) : Facilities of Communication ( in 1987 Jammu Region only 18 % covered by roads and Kashmir valley 40 % covered by roads )( v): And like considerations }; similarly presently there being 10 District Administrative Units each in Kashmir valley as well as out side Kashmir valley where as before 1979 there were only 3 Districts in Valley as against 6 Districts outside Kashmir valley ( Jammu region).
A Delimitation Commission (DC) for a Legislative Assembly is not a simple court where people have to place their case for redressal of grievance and plead.Section-60(5) of the Act-34 says :: The Election Commission shall(a) publish its proposals for the delimitation of constituencies together with the dissenting proposals, if any, of any associate member who desires publication thereof in the Official Gazette and in such other manner as the Commission may consider fit, together with a notice inviting objections and suggestions in relation to the proposals and specifying a date on or after which the proposals will be further considered by it; (b) consider all objections and suggestions which may have been received by it before the date so specified; and (c) after considering all objections and suggestions which may have been received by it before the date so specified, determine by one or more orders the delimitation of constituencies and cause such order or orders to be published in the Official Gazette, and there upon such publication, the order or orders shall have the full force of law and shall not be called in question in any court. In other words DC is body appointed by government to execute an assignment as per the parametersconstitutionally laid down after obtaining all types needed data / information ,analysing the same, then laying down the real maps of the individual segments of a Legislative Assembly and finalising the same only after taking opinion ( though opinions not binding ) of Associate Members and all the stake holders.The responsibility on the DC is huge since its final order can not be challenged in any court of law.where as even judgement order of HC or SC can be challenged.So, the responsibility on the Delimitation Commission is huge and s Delimitation commission should not leave even a bit of scope to enable any body allege that the laid down parameters in law have not been due considerations like has been the case with the Delimitation order of 1995.
…Continued.